After 50 years in the insurance and risk management business, I’ve learned that solving problems begins with identifying their root cause. This steadfast approach brings the greatest success in finding long-term solutions.
Perth’s problem is neither fiscal mismanagement nor councillors’ lack of respect for taxpayers. But rather, it is our municipal governance model that is causing a threat to viability.
The Perth Community is one interconnected collective, yet we govern ourselves as four separate municipalities.
At Lanark County Council, that means we are seen as a population of 6,500 instead of the collective 26,000-person community that we are. Those numerical discrepancies result in less access to services at the County level. Mississippi Mills recognized this decades ago by bringing its community together under one municipal government.
The Perth Community should be asking why we cannot do the same. Numbers are relevant when attempting to access provincial and federal infrastructure transfers. The numbers that matter are population and property assessment base. Which municipality is more likely to get into the hierarchy of grant consideration for a new $10,000,000 arena, the one with 6,000 people or the one with 26,000?
Begins with responsible land-use planning that must marry Climate Change reality and Environmental Respect with the topography of our geography as opposed to using municipal boundary lines. This means Perth Community based land use and development planning. We skirt the edges of this with County level growth and Subdivision Control. It must go further and be fully based on Community planning as opposed to municipal boundary planning. This might mean that we don’t end up with 1,000 home subdivisions on land that is 50% Provincially Designated Wetland and losing a golf course while we are at it.
We want prudent spending of community property tax dollars. This should mean planning our administration and services needs, for the Perth Community as a whole and not broken into four separate jurisdictions. This might mean that we don’t build a new - $4 million public works garage in a Source Water Hazard Protection Zone 10 and maybe we don’t build one at all.
And on that subject, my risk management hat will have me recommending to a new council that we forthwith investigate and commission a secondary supply of Source Water.
I am going to be like a dog with a bone pressing for Responsible Decision Making.
I’m asking for your vote for Deputy Mayor.
Together, we can fix our governance and secure the Perth Community’s future.